Rust Hall: Watching a Memphis Landmark Become Something New

Rust Hall has always had a presence in Overton Park. Even if you didn’t attend the Memphis College

of Art, you knew the building — those Mid-Century modern lines, the way it sat tucked among the trees, the creative energy that seemed to spill out of every studio window. For decades, it was a home for painters, sculptors, designers, dreamers… a place where the city’s next wave of artists learned to see the world differently.

Now it’s entering its next chapter.

Construction crews have begun reshaping the familiar structure as Rust Hall prepares to become the new home of the Memphis Metal Museum. Walking up to it today, you can feel the shift. The building isn’t being erased — it’s being repurposed. Reimagined. Honored. The bones of MCA are

still there, but the future is starting to take shape around them.

From classrooms once filled with easels and critique circles to workshops that will soon ring with the sound of metalwork, this space is staying true to its purpose: creativity. Different mediums, different eras, same heartbeat.

Photographing Rust Hall right now feels like documenting a hinge point — the moment between what it was and what it will become. A landmark in transition. A creative home being passed from one generation to the next.

📍 Rust Hall – Overton Park, Memphis, TN

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